Hundreds honor Brick educator who died in Sandy recovery

Nov. 28, 2012

Vernon Hankins, a bass guitar player, was a member of many classic rock bands. He began playing the guitar at age 13 and would often fall asleep with the musical instrument still in hand. / Photo courtesy of Hankins family.

Written by

Michelle Gladden

@GladdenAPP

A younger Hankins poses with his only daughter Alyssa. Hankins died Thanksgiving morning while doing storm recovery at his Nejecho Drive home. / Photo courtesy of the Hankins family.

A fundraiser to help raise money for the repairs needed at the family’s Nejecho Drive home will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday at the Mantoloking Pub on Mantoloking Road. Four field hockey players Hankins once coached have created an online campaign to help fund home repairs at http://www.indiegogo.com/hankins?c=home.

Vernon Hankins following the Oct. 29 superstorm Sandy devastation. Hankins died Thanksgiving morning while working to clear away the roots of a downed tree. / Courtesy of the Hankins family

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BRICK — The adage, “Show me your friends and it will tell me who you are,” is a testament to Vernon Hankins, the 61-year-old Brick High School educator, artist, musician, coach, husband and father who died Thanksgiving morning while trying to bring the home he built on Nejecho Drive back to normalcy after superstorm Sandy.

“He was a jack of all trades who would never say ‘no’ to anyone,” his brother Mark Hankins, 53, said.

More than a thousand people came together this week to honor Hankins, who was laid to rest Tuesday morning. They came from not only across Monmouth and Ocean counties but as far away as California to pay their last respects to a man they say inspired the very best in them.

“He loved exploring the oddities of life,” lifelong friend Tom Whalley of Los Angeles said. “He liked to discover the differences in the world we live in and turn that into art, whether it be with his sculpture, paintings or playing his bass guitar.”

Whalley said his own success in the music industry was launched when Hankins let him manage one of his earlier rock bands — Days.

Art teacher Aimee Murphy, 36, of Brick said she began as the family’s baby sitter but soon bartered for art lessons. Her art lessons with Hankins led to an Art History degree from Rutgers University.

“I didn’t even know I could draw,” Murphy said. “He would find something special in every one of his students.”

Hankins was cutting away exposed roots of a tree that had fallen in between his home and art studio when the tree shifted its weight and collapsed on him, said Brick Police Sgt. Keith Reinhard.

“My father was the best man I ever knew and it wasn’t his time to leave us,” daughter Alyssa, of California, said in her eulogy. “In the last 2 weeks of his life he watched Hurricane Sandy take away everything he worked for his entire life, including the house he built, and then, eventually, his life.”

Hankins and his wife of 29 years, April, were rescued at 3:30 a.m. after Sandy hit, but their youngest son, David, 24, stayed behind with family dogs Penny and Lady. The couple returned to find flood waters had ravished their home and two of the family cars, and hurricane-force winds uprooted the tree.

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“The thing is, when you asked him if he needed help (with after storm recovery), he said, ‘No, go help someone who needs the help more than I do,’ ” fellow Brick High School educator John Lynch, 44, said.

The family stayed together, working on the home in the week following the storm, but once the nor’easter hit, April and Vernon relocated to his childhood home in Point Pleasant Beach and David stayed with friends in order to be within walking distance of his job at a local boat yard.

“We were all in shock after the hurricane,” neighbor Gina Stanley said. “But Vern had a plan and was hopeful they would be back in the house.”

That plan is now being carried out by a community that reaches far beyond his Brick neighborhood. On Saturday, many of the neighbors, who initially tried to save Hankins from the collapsed tree, returned to clear away its remnants.

“I know my father knew they did all they could do to save him,” his eldest son, Donald, 28, of Annapolis, Md., said. “In the last seconds of his life, he knew he wasn’t alone and there were people by him doing all that they could do help.”

On Sunday, Donald rallied friends to repave the walkway in front of his father’s childhood home in Point Pleasant Beach.

“I know that this was something that always bothered him and I wanted to make sure it was done before everyone arrived for the service,” the U.S. Capital Police Officer said.

By Monday, the Tom Rostron Company of Manasquan offered heating and cooling repairs and Mantoloking Pub owner Tony DeMarco rallied a group of people to finish gutting the family’s home. Hankins’ band, Second Wind, often played at the local eatery.

“We will find a way to rebuild that home, one way or the other,” said Jason Barris, a former student of Hankins who now works with April at Wall Intermediate School. “He was definitely someone that influenced me and pushed me in the direction of this profession.”

“He took me under his wing, when I first started,” said Lynch. He said Hankins was his daughter’s field hockey coach and always instilled the importance of team work.

On Tuesday, students at Brick High School, where Hankins taught for 33 years, honored him by wearing plaid and flannel shirts, something he wore almost every day, said fellow Brick educator Kathy Kelsey.

“He lived for the success of the kids he taught and coached,” son David said.